Apple Sales Surpass All Expectations

We all know that Apple is doing incredibly well, but do you know how well? Get the numbers on their sales this past quarter here!

CNN Money shares…

Much stronger-than-expected iPhone sales helped Apple nearly double its profit last quarter.

The world’s most valuable company said it sold 35.1 million iPhones during the first three months of 2012, soundly beating analysts’ expectations. That was a relief to investors, following weaker-than-expected iPhone activations from Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) and AT&T (T, Fortune 500) during the quarter.

The iPhone 4S got a big boost from overseas sales in the past quarter, particularly after the device launched on China Unicom (CHU) in January and China Telecom (CHA) in March. Apple’s Asian revenues grew 32% over the prior quarter.

Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) also announced that it sold 11.8 million iPads. Boosting sales was the launch of the third generation of the tablet, which went on sale in mid-March, as well as Apple’s decision to continue selling the very similar iPad 2 at a $100 discount.

The iPad is now Apple’s fastest-selling device, reaching 67 million sold since it launched two years ago. It took Apple three years to sell as many iPhones, five years to sell as many iPods and 24 years to sell that number of Macintosh computers.

Mac sales grew to 4 million, and iPod sales slipped to 7.7 million.

Overall, sales for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company rose 59% to $39.2 billion, topping the median forecast of $36.8 billion of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Apple’s net income rose to $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per share, up 95% from a year earlier. Analysts forecasted earnings of $10.04 per share.

For the current quarter, Apple said it expects earnings of $8.68 per share on sales of $34 billion. That is well below Wall Street’s expectations, but investors typically take Apple’s historically conservative guidance with a grain of salt.

At the end of the quarter, Apple’s cash hoard grew to an astounding $110.2 billion. The company said it would begin giving shareholders aquarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime its fiscal fourth quarter, which begins in July. Apple will also buy back $10 billion of its own shares over three years, beginning in October.

Get more information at CNN Money!